Online retailers ignore consumer rights

A European Union investigation of websites selling electronic goods has shown more than half are failing to abide by statutory consumer laws.

The survey of 369 sites around the EU in May – including 200 of the largest online retailers – showed that six in 10 were giving misleading information about consumer rights.

Nearly half of the sites gave misleading information about price and over a third had missing or incomplete contact details; companies must provide a geographic address and email addresses as PO boxes and webforms are not sufficient under the law.

The EU said in 55 per cent of cases some of the irregularities are being investigated further.

It decided to target websites selling electronic goods because of the huge number of complaints national authorities have received from consumers. In the UK these organisations are the Trading Standards Institute and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Meglena Kuneva EU Consumer Commissioner said: "We targeted websites selling electronic goods because I know from my own mail bag, and we know from the level of complaints coming into European Consumer Centres that these are a real problem area for consumers.

“We discovered that more than half of the retailers selling online electronic goods are letting consumers down.”

The investigation concentrated on examining website compliance with three statutory consumer laws. Although rights between member states vary slightly, the EU looked at the Distance Selling Regulations, which give consumers in the UK up to seven days starting from the day after receipt to reject goods; The E-Commerce Directive under which a trader must give a full geographical and email address so a consumer can contact the firm in case of problems, and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive more commonly known as the Consumer Protection Rules.

This law says traders must display in a clear and intelligible way all the key information that consumers need to make an informed choice; including banning misleading and aggressive advertising and unclear pricing.

Traders will now be contacted by the appropriate national authorities. They will be asked to clarify their position or correct the problems identified. Initially advisory or warning letters will be sent.

However a representative for the OFT said it and the Trading Standards Institute had the power to take persistent offenders to court if need be. This could result in fines or a website being closed down.